Battery
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Colonial Fleet
On board Colonial warships, a battery is a group of large gun turrets working together or in concert. A battery may consist of any number of gun turrets, usually four (The Captain's Hand). [1]
Ammunition
The large turrets found on Colonial battlestars fire large-caliber flak ammunition (Scattered). These shells are too large to be loaded quickly and efficiently by crew members, and as such are loaded by mechanical hoists (33). [2]
The massive recoil caused by firing these flak rounds makes it impossible for the cannon to have a fast rate of fire like the point-defense turrets also found on battlestars.
Firing Solution
When engaging enemy targets over any kind of distance, a firing solution must be obtained. This requires several pieces of information to be input to a battery's fire-control computer, including the target's speed, course, and range; and the firing platform's speed and course. The velocity of the shells would be known, and is constant, given that there is no air friction in the vacuum of space. The resulting computation would allow the gun captains to accurately aim their weaponry to such a degree that firing will result in a probable hit.
Operation
As with modern naval cannon, Colonial gun batteries have several modes of operation.
- Salvo Fire: this calls for a battery, or elements of a battery, to fire simultaneously at a single target. (The Captain's Hand)
- Full Attack Mode: a battery's commander (Gun captain, 33) will target and engage targets of oppertunity. [3]
There are likely other modes of operation for these batteries, but none have been explicitly stated on screen.
Limitations
Since their turrets are relatively slow to traverse, a battlestar's main guns would be a poor choice for engaging enemy fighters which are small, fast and extremely maneuverable. They would also be impractical for defending against enemy missile attacks, which would be more suceptible to attack from point defense weapons or Vipers.
The turrets' slow rate of fire also means that a single turret, if left to operate alone - either due to damage, power failure or any other events - may not be a very effective method of attack. It is for this very reason that the turrets are grouped in batteries.
Cylon Fleet
Whereas the Colonials prefer artillery-style guns, the Cylons appear to favor chemically-propelled missiles. Their basestars also use large masses of Raiders instead of gun emplacements and appear to have no point defense weaponry.
Centurions cannibalized parts of their Heavy Raider on Kobol in order to create an anti-aircraft missile battery. This was later used to attack a search and rescue mission launched from Galactica (Fragged).
In their renewed attack on the Twelve Colonies, the Cylons chose to undermine the Colonial Fleet's defense network by adding a backdoor in the Colonial's Achille's Heel: the Command Navigation Program. Otherwise, the new war may have been either a protracted or short event, as several battlestars working together with their batteries will likely shred any offensive and defensive abilities of an equal number of basestars over time. An illustrated example of this is the two-on-two battlestar vs. basestar attack in "Resurrection Ship, Part II."
References
- ↑ Pegasus' bow battery can be seen to consist of four gun turrets when she engages a Cylon basestar.
- ↑ These have been referred to as railguns by some fan sources, but there is substantial evidence to the contrary. See Railgun for more.
- ↑ Batteries during the Battle of the Resurrection Ship were called to "fire at will".